question about pixel wiring

N

nineteeneleven

New elf
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Sep 9, 2014
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This is my first year using pixels. I plan on building a mega tree. Ill be using Vixen 3 and the Renard PX1 controllers. Due to a limitiation in Vixen going up down up down with the pixels is difficult so I plan on rewiring my pixels like this.


does this look like it will work with the data wire the way it is?


TFuaiFw.png



Thanks
 
Only the data needs to go up and down.


If you don't have too many pixels in a string, then you only need to apply +ve and -ve at the bottom.


How many pixels is too many ... answer ... it depends.
How thick are the wires in the pixel strings ?
How thick are the power wires from the controller / power supply to the pixel strings?


If you do have "too many" pixels, then you need to apply power at the top AND bottom of each string.
 
davrus said:
Only the data needs to go up and down.


If you don't have too many pixels in a string, then you only need to apply +ve and -ve at the bottom.


How many pixels is too many ... answer ... it depends.
How thick are the wires in the pixel strings ?
How thick are the power wires from the controller / power supply to the pixel strings?


If you do have "too many" pixels, then you need to apply power at the top AND bottom of each string.
Click to expand...


Each string will contain 33 pixels. There will be 12 strings. they will be 8.5 ft long (2.6m)


The pixel strings have 18 gauge wire.


I plan on using 12 gauge speaker wire, with inline automotive fuses on the V+ side.




Will running the data wire that extra length require more null pixels?
 
I think you will only need to power from the bottom, based on my own testing.


12 AWG wire is like magic, you get a lot of power over long distances (ie, not much voltage drop).


I actually have 18AWG pigtails fixed on the end of the 12AWG cable, and also on the pixel strings.


I presume you are using 12V ?
 
What I have.2 x 150 5V pixel strings 5m long 30/m one going Up then one coming Down, so 10m in total.
Power, Negative and data joined at top so it's a 300 pixel string.
Power into both strings at the bottom. getting good colour. Wired with 2.5m 0.5mm 4 core security cable to each pair.
Left running on white and no temp problems in wires.
 
I have set my tree up in a zig zag fashion. Each output has 2 strips connected. I send data and power to the bottom of the first strip and then just connect data an power at the top to the next strip which now goes down. I then inject just power at the bottom of the second strip.
This allows for a much more efficient use of the outputs instead of using just one strip per output.
With your configuration I would be tempted to run 4 strips per output because effectively you are using 1/2 a strip per line

So really all you need to do supply power and data to the bottom of the first strip and then inject power at the bottom of the 4th strip and then connect data and power between the strips.

You can then set up in either hardware or software for this configuration
 
That was more or less my original intent until I realized there is no simple way of patching vixen. The problem is the 2nd,4th,6th ect strip will run backwards. There is also no option in my controller (PX1) to correct this. So if I want to do a zigzag pattern I will have to patch all the outputs manually (which I may just end up doing) or have the data cable at the bottom of each strip on the tree.
 
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